There is no punishment for Blasphemy in Islam, however, somewhere in the history, the bootlickers wrote the blasphemy laws to please the dictators and monarchs, and the ordinary men and women in the market today rely on those made up books... instead of Quran.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Pakistan; Blaming the Blasphemy Laws

The purpose of this site is to bring together differing views on Blasphemy, and develop an understanding from Islamic point of view for the good of all humanity. Current Blasphemy laws and practices do not go with the values of Islam; free will and respect for life. Although Quran does not permit killing oneself or the other person (unless in self defense), the actual deaths from the enforcement of Blasphemy laws average 3/ year in the entire Muslim world of 1.6 Billion people, where as just in Texas and Florida we execute that many in one year. Neither should be acceptable, shamefully our laws in Texas and laws in Iran are primitive, and Neanderthalic. Both nations need to get rid of these archaic laws. While agreeing with the need to abolish blasphemy laws, we must acknowledge that it is not going to be easy and it cannot be done overnight. The issue is the books that have been referred to for generations, even though they are concocted, they are a backbone to the right wing conservatives, they go by the book, who the hell are you and I to tell them otherwise, they have the books to support their position.Two alternate ways of dealing with it.Need a Mustafa Kemal Pasha to burn all those books, and it is not going to happen, because the Pakistani Politicians do not have guts to be bold, the one who had (Musharraf) turned out to do more harm to the nation than the good. The others before him kissed assess of the religious radicals to remain in power like ZH and ZA. Some of the blame comes on us Americans for feeding and supporting the criminals.The second viable choice is education. Give them the right books, get the Ulema to write as a text or a part of the Sharia Law. Most of them are right, you can listen to almost all of them, they have the right answers, but don't have the books!

The small town Ulema don't have the books or the resources, we cannot blame them for the lack of knowledge, we need to blame ourselves for not facilitating them with the knowledge, the books. You cannot slam dunk the decision on the radicals, it will not be sustainable, get them to sit with you, and review Quraan and Hadith, they will listen to it. Throw them a challenge to prove it from the Quraan, honor them for finding the truth, when they own the research, they will take it upon themselves and the Blasphemy laws will be out of door. Write the Books... any one can write one, and then all of us can improvise on it. Whether they are radical or not, Muslims respect Quraan without blinking an eye, give them the Quraan, the right one from the wrong translations. It is possible. The ones who are screaming have the back up books to support them... we as Muslims need to come up with books on the topic, endorsed by at least a few Ulema's for them to have something in their hands. They rather believe in the book they have, however wrong it may be, than you and I.Blasphemy laws have no religious grounding, none whatsoever. Instead of murdering in the name of God and the prophet, it is time for reflection. God and the Prophet will not only reject, but condemn human sacrifices in their names.

To kill a human is like killing the whole humanity, Quraan prohibits killing unless it is in self defense, and even then, if the offender backs off, a Muslim is required to withdraw the revengefulness and forgive the opponent. Suicide is condemned in Islam.

The Blasphemy law is a game of the politicians; it was initiated by the rulers in the past to appease the religious fanatics and to keep a lid on their subjects. It was done by the English Kings, and it is done by the Republicans to appease the religious right in America today, and it was done to do the same in Pakistan; to appease the religious right who has morphed into Talibans.

Governor Taseer was a Muslim, and the Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was a Christian, both were shot dead for asking to bring about the reforms in the Blasphemy laws.

Think about it, neither the killers of Taseer nor Bhatti are evil; it is the damned silence of Pakistanis that is evil for doing nothing about it. It takes just a few boys in the class room to stand up to the bully from beating them up and the bullies will flee. The Tunisians, the Egyptians, the Libyans are standing up against the bullies, the Pakistanis can do it too to bring about a change they really want, but have to show the moral courage. If you let extremism prevail, you won't be able to run from it and will sink in the quick sand.

Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about it at; www.blasphemylaws.com/

What Blasphemy law are we talking about. What is happening nowadays is pure political turmoil. Has nothing to do with Islam. There is no law that should be constructed that is contradictory to the Qur'anic principle. As you said Qur'an says : YOU KILL unjustly even one person , it is equivalent to killing the whole of humanity. Period. There is no where it advocates people to go kill. Not only that: The story of Solmon in Qur'an is not mentioned Just as a story. there is great meaning and moral in it for US Muslims and Humanity in general , When he changed to course of his troops in order to save the Ant hill and the killing of Ants. Which is even the life of an Ant so small is sacred, and not to crushed and killed unnecessarily or unjustly or if you can avoid killing an ANT then do so. That is what our Beloved Prophet Sulaiman ( Solmon ) taught us. Our Beloved Mohammed is also not only a mercy to mankind but to animals too. ( Best example : he entered as a Victor a Conqueror in Mecca , and did not allow his army to spill a drop of blood. Compare to present day conquerors or oppressors Murder , Pillage , rape etc everything horrible happens.) but also his kindness extended to Cat who was sleeping on his clothes when he was sitting and then when he had to get up, he just cut the cloth of his suit around the Cat and got up without disturbing the sleep of the Cat. This is our method of living in this world. Respect Human Rights and Animal rights. And When the old women with hatred threw trash over him every day, and one day , when she did not do her routine, he felt oh she may not be well or dead, he knocked on the door to find out about her , and tended to her as she was sick. She did stop her sick behavior . Can we not take this example ,to be kind to those who misbehave with us deliberately. I think we can. How courages is it to lie about a dead man's character , think about it. That is a Sick behavior.Qur'anic Principle again here : Repel EVIL WITH THAT WHICH IS GOOD. YOUR WORST ENEMY WILL BECOME THE BEST FRIEND. We too can live like our beloved Prophet Mohammed lived. The sick woman's sick behavior got cured by his good behavior. Can we not cure the sicknesses prevalent now . I think we can. provided we read qur'an understand , assimilate it and live it.It is not easy , but that is our duty to do the best we can. Our lives should be a Glory to our Creator.Not Just prayer = that is lip service only . ( Sufi Dictum is : Fanafillah ho ker jeo: )

All the political turmoil going on between the middle eastern natives and occupiers , and their propaganda of lies of a war front basis , has nothing to do with Islam . All the fight is about the Land and the Resources and natives and settlers. Survival of the fittest is going on like animals in a Jungle. . Only the Jungle animals are better, there is one on one fight , and it gets decided. Here is mass destruction of human lives.over there it one over here thousands and thousands. Only God knows the outcome of this greed and lunacy.